206 CHEMICAL ATTRACTION. 



the particles of copper are held together by the 

 same agent that causes it to combine with zinc 

 and other metals : but who has ever maintained 

 that the atoms of homogeneous bodies are in 

 different states of electricity ? 



It is not surprising that M. Becquerel, who 

 follows Davy and Berzelius in referring chemi- 

 cal attraction to electricity, should have ad- 

 mitted that cohesion is a stumbling block, (la 

 pierre d'achoppement), in the way of every at- 

 tempt hitherto made to connect the theory of 

 chemistry with that of electricity. (Traite de 

 L'ectricite et du Magnetisme, vol. iii. p. 369.) 



4. Those who regard caloric and electricity as 

 distinct agents, and the latter as the cause of 

 chemical affinity, make caloric the cause of 

 repulsion. Nothing could be more absurd than 

 such partial and contradictory views of nature. 

 Has it not been known, ever since electricity 

 was first studied as a science, that it possesses 

 the power of repulsion as well as caloric ? I 

 have also proved that the effects of caloric are 

 not limited to its self-repulsive agency that 

 it has a universal attraction for ponderable mat- 

 ter, and repulsion of its own particles, by virtue 

 of which it binds bodies together, or tears them 

 asunder, according as it pervades them in 

 greater or less proportions and it will be shewn 

 hereafter^ that all the motive powers of elec- 

 tricity, whether of high or low tension, are 



